


Marry Me?

by andathousandyearsmore



Series: blue or green or brown [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: A little angst, Adorable Steve Rogers, Babies, Baking, Cute, Dates, Domestic Avengers, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff and Humor, Just a little angst, Loki & Tony Stark Friendship, Loki (Marvel) is a Good Bro, M/M, Marriage Proposal, POV Loki (Marvel), POV Steve Rogers (minor), Rubies, Sleeptalking, Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Steve Rogers Feels, Steve Rogers Is a Good Bro, Team as Family, Tony Stark is So Done, Troll Loki (Marvel), apple pies, soft steve rogers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-06-15
Packaged: 2020-03-02 10:13:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18809086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andathousandyearsmore/pseuds/andathousandyearsmore
Summary: Five times Steve asks Loki to marry him, one time he doesn’t, and one time he doesn’t have to.





	1. The One Right After The Conference

**Author's Note:**

> Well, I really couldn’t have All These Windy Nights end without a successful proposal, so I decided to make it into a sequel! But I’m not making any guarantees about a successful proposal here either.

**I.**

“Ok, spill, what the hell were the two of you whispering about when the rest of us were trying to run a press conference?” Tony asks when they’re all assembled in the entertainment room. He’s sitting on the loveseat with Pepper, who just shoots him a look but doesn’t dissuade him. 

Steve just shrugs casually, but Loki, feeling the need to validate just how bad that proposal was, says instead, “He proposed right after the question about getting married.” 

Bucky sighs, the first reaction to the news that isn’t a surprised face (or shocked, to be honest), “Rogers, I swear, you got no game.” Then, to Loki, “You said no, right? N-O?”

“Would you believe me if I said yes?” Loki asks. “Because then I’d have to call you as much of a fool as Steve.”

“Hey,” Steve protests. “It’s rude to call your boyfriend a fool. Even if he is trying to be your husband over here.”

”Oh my god,” Sam faux-whispers dramatically, shaking his head sadly. “No game at all.”

Steve groans and sinks back into the sofa, burying his head in his hands. “That’s it. I’m never trying to do that ever again. Serves me right for even trying to do something.” After a second, when everyone is laughing, he peeks one eye open to look at Loki’s reaction, and then closes it again, sinking back even further childishly. Loki just rolls his eyes, not even bothering to assure Steve of his efforts. Not when they were so bad.  

“I give it two minutes,” Natasha says, just as unimpressed as Loki is. “Maybe three, probably not.”

Sure enough, Steve pulls himself out from the sofa cocoon and then smiles innocently at Loki. All within Natasha’s predicted two minutes, so she smiles like a wolf, teeth all showing. 

“Do you even have a ring?” Clint asks, gesturing to Loki’s fingers with a drumstick in his hand. How he always seems to have those in his hands whenever they’re all just comfortably hanging out is a mystery even to Loki. “

Steve very pointedly does not answer the question. 

“I believe it is customary to propose to someone with a ring,” Vision points out, very cheekily since all of them know that _Vision_ knows full well what human customs and traditions are by now. 

Steve very pointedly ignores Vision as well, now.  

“Do you?” Loki asks, now throughly amused by the blush that is creeping up Steve’s neck. “Now I’m curious.” 

“He doesn’t,” Wanda helpfully (and cheerfully) says. 

Steve now very pointedly ignores Wanda as well, and he’ll very soon run out of people to ignore if keeps going at this rate, Loki thinks. But then Steve suddenly leaps off the couch—determined to do something—and then disappears outside. 

Before he can wonder where Steve has gone, Steve very miraculously returns back to the entertainment room, with something in his hand. Loki is almost positive that it cannot be a ring, but the playful smirk on Steve’s face has him doubting it. Because there is most definitely something in Steve’s hand that he most definitely went out to grab. What is it? 

“There’s no way that there’s a ring in your hand,” Tony says loudly, almost like he’s convincing himself. “Bull _shit_ , Rogers.”

Instead, Steve drops to one knee, right in front of Loki. Loki hears a squeal. He’s fairly sure it came from Peter, or maybe whoever that Peter is on a video call with. Then he goes back to the two friends of Peter that he has met, and then thinks, _probably_ _Peter_.

”Loki,” Steve very seriously says in that tone he uses whenever he’s mocking very important people and trolling them. “Light of my life, holder of my heart, and, um, the best thing that’s ever happened to me, do me the honor of marrying me?” 

His hand unfurls to reveal a Ring Pop and Loki starts snickering, aware that no one else can see what is in Steve’s hand right now and rubbing it in to all of their curiosities. They’re all trying extremely hard to see what Steve’s holding, and if it is or isn’t a ring, but Steve’s body is blocking off all their views. It’s hilarious. 

“I would give you a three out of ten, maybe, but considering that you hand is currently holding a Ring Pop, a two,” Loki judges, and then Steve pouts, hopping back onto sofa next to him. 

“I tried,” Steve says, shrugging once more. He pops the ring pop into his mouth and then pretends to not notice and of the people currently laughing at him. 

“I don’t know what’s worse,” Sam says. “ _Holder of my heart_ or the Ring Pop.” 

“Hey,” Loki says. “That is lime-flavored. Those are my favorite.” 

“You should have said yes,” Steve merely says, before licking at the candy again. It’s almost pornographic, how he’s sucking and licking at it. Loki wants to looks away, if only not to be affected. 

“You don’t even like the green ones,” Loki complains, never had being to be jealous of a Ring Pop before. 

“Sure I do. But these are _your_ favorites,” Steve says nonchalantly.

”And now it’s disgustingly sappy again,” Sam sighs, ever the thrilling, witty commenter with relevant observations and calls. 

“How do you call an intimate knowledge of Steve’s blowjob skills sappy?” Clint asks, and thank Heimdall its not only Loki who’s noticing this. “I mean, yikes.”

”Kid!” Tony yells, frantically pointing to Peter, who is mostly unfazed. 

“I’m 17.” 

“You think that’s bad?” Sam asks, a long suffering sigh already making its way into his face. “You haven’t heard a single damn thing.”

“Ten dollars he references the phonesex story,” Steve whispers in his ear, suddenly leaning over. As if Loki wasn’t already just a tiny bit aroused by all the sounds coming from Steve next to him, having Steve’s breath hot and heavy in his ear just makes it a little worse. 

“Double that for a mention of Berlin.”


	2. The One Where They’re Cooking

**II**.

Loki finds Steve in the kitchen, and pauses as soon as he spots the blond. Instead, he leans against the wall and takes care not to trigger Steve’s super-senses, because the Steve that breathes alone is a fascinating Steve to watch. When he doesn’t think anyone is around him, Steve has a tendency to let go of the world and all of its weight—half the time, that’s a good thing, like today. Because it’s only now when Steve looks rooted, and not without the vibrant energy that Loki equally loves, but with a calm aura. 

He’s fallen in love with this just as much as everything else, really. He’s fallen in love with this man who sings pop songs just as frequently as he gently hums tunes from the 30s and 40s, with this man who hums songs he doesn’t know all the words to while peeling apples (green) for countless desserts, with this man who bakes and cooks enough to feed an army because he feels eternal weight over previously fighting for an actual army. 

Loki smiles as he sees the light from the windows gently hit his lover’s hair, golden blond shining softly, like the moment that Steve has created for himself. He wants to join his lover, make himself part of the moment too. But he doesn’t want to ruin it, no matter how much Steve will (predictably) tell him nothing is ruined. That’s not true. 

Still, after Steve’s done singing two songs that Loki can not recognize, and done humming a third that Loki does recognize (by the singer with the blue hair with the song about colors), he thinks that standing here and watching might be a little creepy. Just a little. 

So he makes his presence known by breathing a little heavier, by a soft laugh that reaches Steve instantly, if the blond’s reaction is anything to go by. Loki’s surprised that he hasn’t tensed, merely only stopping to sing. 

“Going to stand there and watch?” Steve asks, and Loki grins again, because a) Steve can’t see him and b) Steve doesn’t _know_.

He walks over to Steve instead, plastering himself to Steve’s back, making it extremely easy for him to whisper, “What would you have me do instead?” in Steve’s ear. The shudder that runs of Steve’s spine is easy for him to feel as well. He takes advantage of it, placing his arms around Steve’s impossibly small waist and kissing up the blond’s neck.

And, just because he wants Steve to cave in, he times each kiss well, matching it to Steve’s peeling skills. 

“You should, _oh_ , you should stop that,” Steve says, sounding like he would rather Loki do the exact opposite. His voice hitches when Loki nips at a particularly sensitive spot, before he pressing a kiss. “I have, _Loki!_ I have these to make.”

“You asked,” Loki whispers, though he reluctantly stops and instead watches Steve’s hands over the blond’s shoulder. “If I was going to stand there and watch.”

”Help me,” Steve says instead. “And we can do whatever after.”

Loki grins and then snaps his fingers, the visual cue more for Steve’s benefit than anything else. Instantly all the apples are peeled and sliced.

”Oh, I love you,” Steve sighs, staring happily at the bowls filled with prepped apples. Loki guesses that he’s just saved Steve around an hour of work, considering Steve’s tendency to be a perfectionist and the time he would actually spend singing versus working. Because there are truly that many apples here. 

“Just how many pies are you making?” Loki asks, trying to cover up his smile at Steve’s declaration. 

”Ten,” Steve says, gesturing to the ten pie crusts that already prepped. “Unless there’s something I don’t know about.” 

“You don’t like apple pie,” Loki reminds, wondering what use Steve has for ten of these, let alone one. “Which Tony always finds to be hilarious.” 

“They’re for everyone else,” Steve explains. “Since I made the pie crust dough this morning.” 

Steve doesn’t add on that he really means the two-in-the-morning kind of morning, not the time that people usually wake up at. But he doesn’t have to say anything. Loki already knows. 

“Fine,” Loki obliges, glancing at Steve’s radiant face. “Tell me what to do.” 

“Grab me the cardamom and the cinnamon?” Steve asks, and then they spend the next half an hour getting all the pies into the oven, right after Steve makes sure that everything is perfect. 

“You’re compulsively looking,” Loki says.

Steve closes the oven door and sighs. “Yeah,” he says. “I am.”

“Anything the matter in particular?” 

Steve glances at him, the expressions in his face changing as he’s deciding whether or not what to say. Loki watches as Steve decides between shrugging it off, lying altogether, talking some of it out, or staying silent. 

Then, in a move that is none of the options listed above, Steve smiles wryly. “Well, my heart’s still wounded from you turning me down twice, so I don’t know. Is there anything in particular?”

Surveying the look on his face a little more closely, Loki sees thin lines of tension around Steve’s eyes and ghosts of nightmares that Steve’s desperately trying to push away. So he swallows down any further questions and decides to play along, if only to preserve Steve’s moment. “You know they say the third time happens to be the charm.” 

Steve rolls his eyes, though there’s a silent _thank you_ in his smile. “You really think so? Well, in that case, Loki Friggajarson, make me the happiest man in all of the Nine Realms and marry me?” 

Loki pretends to think about it, and says, “No. Three out of ten this time.”

”Do I get an explanation as to why?” Steve asks, and then pretends to be terribly hurt. “I might start to become offended.” 

“No ring,” Loki says. “And I had to prompt you to say something. There’s no artistic flair or finesse to it either. 


	3. The One Where Steve Is Arrested

**III.**

_Thirty minutes after the incident_

Loki would like to maintain that none of this is his fault, in any form or manner, for once. He places the blame squarely on Steve’s extremely stupid ass. 

* * *

_Fifty minutes after the incident_

“You’re kidding me,” Tony says when he approaches the jail cell, looking at who’s inside. “You’re genuinely fucking kidding me.” 

“Nope,” Steve says casually, much too casually for someone who’s currently inside said jail cell, lying on a bench almost like one would lie on a hammock, and bouncing a red ball off the cell wall with his left hand. “Here to bail?” 

“You... you just got arrested! You!” Tony sputters, waving his hands everywhere. “Why are you so calm?” 

“Wasn’t my fault I got arrested this time around,” Steve says, still throwing the red ball. He sounds amused, and not at all concerned for himself. _Sounds_ _right_. 

Tony takes a deep breath in, and then exhales. “I’m going to pretend that you didn’t say the words _this_ _time_ _around_ , and you’re going to stop bouncing that damned ball like you’re in the Great Escape.” 

Steve catches the ball for the last time, and then sets it down. He leaps off the bench, kicking himself off of it one graceful move, and then faces both him and Tony. 

“You are quite lucky that they have not realized who you are,” Loki says. Steve shrugs.

* * *

_The incident_

Steve has a definite plan in his mind for how he wants to get engaged. And if that means he is going to photographed by paparazzi (who have most definitely been tipped off) who are going to ‘catch him’ shopping for rings, then so be it. If that means he has to suffer through a salesperson talking to him about bands and stones and designs for a ring he is never going to buy, then it’s a good thing that he’s actually eyeing a series of ruby necklaces that just so happen to be next to said ring displays. Natasha’s birthday is coming up. 

“And depending on the size of the ring...” the salesman is saying as Steve sees a water hydrant get blasted right in front of the shop. There’s water gushing everywhere outside, and not a single person inside the store even seems to notice. 

“I’m so sorry; I’ll be back in just a second,” he says, dashing outside to see just what happened. He regrets it instantly. Because the next thing he knows, he’s fighting a group of guys who have purple blasters that can obliterate specifically stone and metal while injuring anything else. 

When all is said and done, and Steve is down both the full use of his left arm (broken) and his left leg (?????), he just sighs and goes back what’s inside what remains of the shop, which surprisingly includes most of it. He wonders how the shop managed to survive alien tech blasts, and then decides not to question it. 

Steve sees no one inside who isn’t shaken up by the incident (which is actually only the guy who was trying to sell a ring to him), or someone who is actually available to sell him the necklace (because buisness is continuing as usual inside this shop where no one gives a damn). 

He sighs, grabs the necklace from its broken display, and writes out a check that is the exact price (plus another five hundred to cover his bases; jewelers are tricky like that). He is far too tired for this, so he sticks the check right where the necklace was, and makes sure it stays. 

And then he leaves. Or tries to. Because there’s apparently one more kid with a godammned blaster. Steve manages to knock them out, but not before they blast a lot more of the shop, which still doesn’t get anyone’s attention. 

After the police take this kid too, they look at Steve, who’s holding the necklace, and arrest him. Steve wants to laugh at them, but complies, because he doesn’t want to cause a scene and make their job worse. 

* * *

_Fifty-five minutes after the incident_

“You’re also lucky that a security camera caught you writing out a check to the store,” Tony says, completely fed up with the situation. 

“What did you supposedly steal, anyway?” Loki asks, curious. 

“A necklace,” Steve says, rubbing his face with his left arm. “But now I have to go somewhere else to get what I wanted.” 

“Now you can,” Tony says. “You’re free. And without me paying bail; look at that. They apologize, by the way. Apparently your check got blasted, so you just have to write a new one.” 

“Don’t pay for it,” Steve says, just like Loki knew he would. “I think I have buyer’s remorse.” 

Well. That’s different. 

* * *

_Five hundred and twenty minutes after the incident_

_“_ You know,” Steve says randomly, when they’re both sitting on the sofa watching an episode of a reality TV show neither of them are completely following at the moment, “I was in there to buy a ring.” 

Actually, by sitting, Loki means that he is sitting properly on the sofa, as it is meant to be used, and Steve is lying on it, his head in Loki’s lap and his feet dangling off the other armrest. His eyes don’t even bother to pretend to watch the show; Loki knows they’ve been on him (or the ceiling for a few moments) the entire time. 

“I would have guessed as much,” Loki merely says, a faint smile on his lips. As if he would not have pieced that together. 

Steve makes a soft _hmm_  when he looks back at Loki’s eyes and then says, “You should marry me. I’ll get you a proper ring next time.” 

Loki purses his lips. “4/10. No ring, no drama.” 

Steve pouts, but doesn’t say anything after that.

* * *

The next day, the front cover of the newspaper says, “CAPTAIN AMERICA FOUND SHOPPING FOR A RING AT TIFFANY’S. A PROPOSAL ON THE WAY?”


	4. The One With Two Secrets And A Baby

**IV.**

When Loki steps into the communal room, he does not expect what he sees in the slightest. There’s also no possible way he can deny that he was not surprised. 

Sitting criss-crossed on the floor is one Steve Rogers, with one very amused Bucky Barnes in the couch behind him. Well, that’s a little inaccurate. Bucky is currently filming Steve with a large grin on his face. And Steve? Steve is holding a child and bouncing them up and down while saying absolute nonsense to them. He’s smiling brightly, like an idiot, but he looks incredibly _happy_. 

The child looks happy as well. Any child would be happy like that.

“When did we get a baby?” Tony asks in horror, doing numerous double takes. Bucky takes one look at Tony’s hilariously shocked face and starts filming him instead. “Oh my god, _how_ did we get a baby? I can’t... _baby_!” He all but hisses the last word. 

“Ba-ba,” Steve is saying to the child, “Come on Tamannah, baba!” He’s still bouncing them up and down, and the child is happily clapping and smiling as she goes up and down in Steve’s hands.

“One of Stark’s R&D geniuses apparently couldn’t come in today because her nanny cancelled, and Steve just happened to pass by when he heard, so now he’s watching her,” Bucky sighs and explains when Steve shows no inclination to break his focus from the child. “Her name is Tamannah.” 

Tony blinks once. “She’s Melika’s? So... ten months old?” 

“Yup,” Bucky says. “Steve’s a sucker for babies.” 

“Didn’t you hate kissing babies on the USO tour?” Tony asks, looking at Steve strangely. 

Steve doesn’t answer. Bucky shuts off his videoing and then says, “He hated capitalism and sellin’ himself out to people, and to babies who didn’t deserve it.” 

“So I’m guessing that’s a secret no one wants out to the public on a livestream,” Tony says. “And— _Steve_! What the _fuck_ are you _doing_?”

Steve is apparently a flight simulator now. Loki has no doubt that Steve knows how to balance his weight and Tamannah’s so that she doesn’t fall, but Loki focuses on balancing her with his magic to help Steve out. 

“ _Language_ ,” Steve hisses at Tony, daggers from his eyes. “And she’s this close to crying. Until Clint comes back with food, she’s ‘flying’.”

“Ha, ha, very funny,” Tony says, rolling his eyes at Steve. 

“This is the one time you’ve ever said that and meant it,” Bucky says, “Shoulda recorded it.” 

“No, he called my language out back at Ultron and that’s how this started,” Tony counters. 

“Nope. This one’s been around since 1944,” Bucky shrugs, sharing a grin with Steve. Then, pausing for extra dramatic effect, he whispers, “It’s a secret.” 

“What’s a secret?” Clint says as he strolls into the room with both a bag of food and Wanda. “Also here’s everything you need, and an extra person, but it seems like you’ve got the help covered.” 

“I’m not helping,” Bucky and Tony simultaneously negate. 

“He meant Loki,” Wanda says, to which both men take offense. “Full offense. But what’s this secret?” 

“Steve hates capitalism,” Bucky says flatly. Loki has to stifle a laugh at the reaction on Wanda’s face. 

“That is no secret,” she says. “Remember that time when he was drunk off of the alien goo? I was stuck on the two-hour shift when he began a long drunken rant.” 

“Workers of world, unite,” Steve solemnly repeats.

“Wa-ka!” Tamannah says, and Steve freezes, immediately holding her with two hands after he’s realized what she’s said. 

“No, not worker,” Steve says, just as Tamannah repeats what she has just said. “Ba-ba!” His efforts are in vain, unfortunately. Bucky laughs. “Come on, please.” 

“Dr. Hasan is requesting access to the floor,” FRIDAY says. “Urgently.”

”Let her up, Fri,” Tony says. 

An unfamiliar woman, nearly six-feet tall and panicked, storms into the communal area with her lab coat still on. 

“The livestream ended,” she says. “And I—” She stops, taking a deep breath. “Panicked. Okay. Clearly I just—I’m taking today off.” 

Tony merely shrugs when she looks at him. “You’re the one that came back, Lika.” 

Steve hands the child over with a smile and says, “She was a delight to watch.” 

“How much do I pay you?” the scientist asks, before freezing. “It was seven hours,” she adds on, trying to justify her reflexive response. 

“Nothing,” Steve says. “The Stark maternity plan covers emergency babysitting for all covered.” 

It isn’t until six hours later, at eight in the night, when Steve talks about children again. 

“Maybe I should just quit being Cap and just be a sitter for Tony’s employees who have days like this. God knows I deal with children everyday anyway,” Steve says offhandedly, apropos of nothing. The entire team is confused, especially when the topic before at dinner was a story about Clint falling out of a tree. “Actual kids are easier.”

“I’m older than you,” Tony says. “Technically.” 

“Steve just needs to get a kid, and then he’ll be saying something different,” Clint says. “Do you want any?” 

Steve pulls a face. “I don’t know. Never had time to think about it. But I wouldn’t want to do it alone.” 

“You can’t get a baby by yourself,” Bucky says. 

Steve glares. “You can if you adopt. Even if it’s much harder as a single parent.” 

“You sound like you’ve looked it up,” Natasha says, breaking her conversation with Sam and Wanda. 

“Nah,” Steve says, and then he turns to face Loki with a smile. “Besides, I think I’d want to get married before, anyway.” 

“You’re insane,” Loki says. 

“Please marry me,” Steve says. 

“5/10,” Loki responds, “You lose two points for no ring and two for doing it in a casual team dinner.” 

“What about the fifth point?” Steve asks. 

“Informality,” Loki says. “You’re not even trying now, even if this is a nice restaurant.” 

“Stop saying no and I’ll try!” 

“That makes no sense.”


	5. The One Where Steve Is Sleeping

**V.**

“M’selfish,” Steve murmurs in his sleep, shifting around on the couch, completely oblivious to the fact that he’s fallen asleep on Loki during movie night. This time around, he can’t bring himself to even be a little mad at Steve, not when Steve’s face has smoothened out and there’s not a trace of stress or concern. His breathing has evened out, his chest rising and falling peacefully. 

Natasha pauses the movie and then gestures over to Steve. “You should probably bring him upstairs.”

“He might wake up,” Loki says, looking down at Steve and running a hand through his blond locks. At this point, Loki thinks that Steve hasn’t properly sat down on a couch in a long while, always preferring to lie on it (and subsequently Loki’s lap). Contact, he knows, is the key to getting Steve truly comfortable and relaxed.

“M’rry me,” Steve whispers, still completely asleep. “Bestest of people.” 

“That’s cute,” Wanda says, when Clint pretends to gag. Wanda glares at the archer, continuing on to say, “It _is_.”

Loki smiles fondly at his lover, wondering what is happening in his dream, a pleasant one that he hopes will not be the last of tonight. Steve needs all the protection from nightmares, especially after a horrendous battle. Most of them (including Loki himself) won’t be sleeping for a long while, not with the demons behind their own eyes, but no one is going to begrudge Steve for sleeping and trying to cope, not when he had taken the brunt of it. 

“So pretty,” Steve mumbles, and Sam breaks out a smile, the first one that Loki’s seen of the flyer since the battle. “Love you.” 

“I can’t believe Sleepy Steve has more game than Awake Steve,” Bucky sighs, rolling his eyes at his best friend. “That’s awful.”

Loki knows that this isn’t the case. He knows that Steve’s waiting for something, maybe someone or sometime, to make an effort and truly propose. He also knows that Steve is miserable at taking a jump into his love life without talking about it to someone else, whether that be Loki himself or another Avenger. Besides all the proposals, Steve hasn’t done anything. Every single no is just as much for himself as it is for Steve, who merely seems to be testing the waters. 

Which is a little disappointing, because Loki would really like to say yes one of these days. Especially when he’s running out of reasons to turn Steve down as each proposal goes down. He fears that soon enough, the only reason that his mind will be able to conjure up is the fact that Steve has no ring. 

Especially since last time Steve asked, Loki had been this close to saying yes and ruining their charade. It had been just a little hard when Steve was positively radiant under the lights of the moon, when they were walking in Central Park at night. 

Loki’s just in a little bit of trouble. Not his fault. 


	6. The One With A Perfect (Almost) Day

“You still haven’t said where we are going,” Loki says, glancing over to Steve with a curious stare. Steve is pointedly looking forwards at the road behind the pickup truck’s wheel, though a smile remains on his face, bright and knowing. They have been driving for well over half an hour from the compound, and he has a feeling that they are taking what Tony would call the scenic route. 

“I don’t know where we’re going,” Steve says instead, and Loki jerks from his seat, springing forward so that he can have a better look at Steve rather than catching a side view. He’s... not lying. 

“What.” 

“Every single time there’s a fork in the road, I’ve been taking a left, but otherwise I’ve been going straight,” Steve explains and then he slams the brakes, squinting as he looks out the front window. Loki really doesn’t like the look of that. “Huh. I could have sworn we passed this place. Do those rocks look familiar?” 

Loki also doesn’t understand his lover sometimes. “You mean we’ve been driving in circles.” 

“Well, I was planning on hitting a town sometime soon,” Steve says, frowning, “But it looks like the roads have other plans. Maybe I’ll take a right next.” 

That is exactly what he does when the opportunity comes, and they hit a small, but beautiful town that Loki’s never seen or heard of before. The sign welcomes them to Athens in Greene County. 

“Why are we here?” Loki quietly asks. 

“Because you look like you’re going to strangle the next person who breathes wrong on you,” Steve responds, shrugging. “You can’t tell me that the drive wasn’t  relaxing.” 

Loki doesn’t know what to say to that, so he—as a direct result of spending too much time with Tony—tries to make a joke instead. “What if that person is you?” 

Steve smirks. “As if you would ever tell me that I’m breathing wrong on you. Come on, this place looks like it has things to see.” 

Loki catches his reflection in the pickup’s side mirror and then looks back at Steve’s face, easy and open. He sighs and wordlessly climbs out of the truck, letting Steve take care of the parking and space. 

It takes Steve four minutes and thirty nine seconds to go find a place to park (not that he’s actually counting) and to join him, but when he does, Steve smiles again, lightly. He holds his hand out.

“Let’s go,” he says, eyes sparkling with curiosity and Loki suddenly gains a feeling that today is perhaps just as much for him as it is for Steve. He takes Steve’s hand with a casual air and then lets Steve drag him wherever he wants. Maybe he’ll feel that careless enthusiasm that Steve seems to be filled with right now too. 

They visit no less than three restaurants, including a bakery, pizza place and an eatery that had decent sandwiches. They eat said sandwiches near the river (Hudson) and watch a few boats travel back and forth. They people watch, and Loki notices that they aren’t the only outsiders here. But he doesn’t really pay much more attention than that. 

Well, much more attention to anything that isn’t Steve. 

Loki’s aware that he is sitting with his back straight, filled with nervous energy and an unwillingness to loosen up. He feels tense, like his body's preparing for a fight that he isn’t going to find unless he creates one. There is an unrelenting darkness that tries to call his mind down, and yet it seems that today, he isn’t giving in. For which Steve would be quite proud, if he knew. 

Maybe his lover does know, though, for how he seems to be the opposite right now. Steve’s posture is relaxed and calm, and his head is lying on Loki’s shoulder as if he happens to be a much smaller person. Steve’s pressed into Loki, like he believes that he can absorb all of Loki’s stress and fighting it off. He doesn’t say anything, but this is enough. There aren’t any words that either of them could say.

Not until they have to leave. Not until what feels like hours later, when the sun has changed positions in the sky, but they haven’t.  

“We should probably leave,” Steve whispers, tilting his body so that he’s still leaning on Loki, but so that he can also see Loki’s face. “Today’s not over, come on.”

Loki lets himself be pulled to a clock tower and several antique buildings that are charming and quaint. He lets himself smile at Steve’s grin when his lover visits the small museum and talks about what it reminds him of. And, if he lets himself become lost in Steve’s presence and the soothing nature of this small town, because he’s allowed to, well he’s not complaining as something in him works itself out. 

Time flies by much too quickly for his liking, even though every moment had felt like an extended breath of peace. Before he knows it, Steve’s tugging at his hand again with an unabashed smile and leading both of them over to a parking area with the pickup. 

“We’ve got somewhere else to be soon,” Steve says with a soft smile that Loki could spend eternity with. “Come on?” 

When he climbs back into the pickup truck, he leans his seat a little back and then turns his head to survey Steve until they reach wherever they are apparently supposed to be. Surprisingly, he isn’t concerned with the fact that he has no control over today. Loki’s perfectly fine with letting Steve take him out today, even given how compulsive he is over the details and the control. 

Normally, he’s always playing with the reins firmly in his hands. 

“Stop staring at me,” Steve says after either a minute or ten have passed. “Is there something on my face?” Steve quickly looks at himself in the rear view mirror, shifting his face so that he can inspect it. 

“No, there isn’t.” 

“Then quit staring,” Steve says with no real malice or ill intent in his voice. Loki does no such thing. He knows he’s a besotted fool anyway, when it comes to his lover. He would never not look and admire. “I’m feeling self-conscious.” 

“You should never.” 

Steve huffs a laugh and then gives him a quick glance, keeping his eyes on the road right after that again. “Gotta look this good when I’m next to you all the time. How else am I supposed to keep you?” 

It’s an easy joke, but Loki waits for the punchline about another way to keep him. Or a punchline about how he wants to look good next to Loki for a long time. But it doesn’t come. It never comes. 

He stops expecting a punchline after a few minutes have elapsed and starts to wonder if he’s truly overthinking everything. Maybe Steve just couldn’t find one—but that was impossible since Loki had already found a couple without even trying. Or maybe he wanted to end the charade of pretending to ask. That was... disappointing. And distressing. 

“Hey,” Steve gently says, coaxing Loki out of his spiraling thoughts. He glances at Loki again. “We’re here.” 

Loki looks out the window and sees absolutely nothing but the road and the surrounding highway landscape. There’s not even a sign in sight. He looks back to Steve, confusion pushing out every other though right now. 

“Where exactly is here?” Loki asks, biting his lip and looking out again to see if there’s something he’s missed. But... nothing. There’s absolutely nothing. He wants to conjure up his phone to at least find where the maps would put them at, but a quelling look from Steve has him pause. 

“I don’t know,” Steve shrugs and before Loki can give him a look, he feels the magical presence of his mother. And then, he feels the lack of an old pickup seat under him and the presence of elegant leather. He blinks and the pickup truck has suddenly transformed into a classy car. “Your mother said to come here and she would bring us somewhere else.”  

“Where are we—” Loki asks, before he looks out the window and sees a street sign telling them that they are halfway between Oslo and New Asgard. “ _Mother_. Did she tell you about this? I hope you packed clothes.” 

But when he looks over to Steve, his lover is whistling softly, resuming his driving. He must have known. Or better, he must have planned this all to happen. 

“Only for me,” Steve says. “I didn’t dare touch your closet, not when you have one there. Maybe I should start sneaking clothes there. Would make traveling a lot easier if I didn’t have to worry about packing things.”

This is a set-up, Loki realizes. This is the prelude to a proposal, and for once Steve seems like he truly does mean it. 

Only, it never comes. 

**Author's Note:**

> come yell at me on my [tumblr](https://butonlyifyourecounting.tumblr.com/) which I think I finally managed to set up right!


End file.
